From the Liveblog of
Friday, May 10, 2024
Report: IDF tanks advance on main road dividing eastern, western sides of Rafah
Israeli tanks advanced on a main road dividing the eastern and western halves of southern Gaza’s Rafah today, Reuters reports.
The IDF had said that it captured part of the Salah a-Din road when it launched its operation on eastern Rafah late Monday.
It appears that tanks have pushed further along the road, although still within a zone that the IDF ordered to be evacuated.
Residents described almost constant explosions and gunfire east and northeast of the city, with intense fighting between Israeli forces and operatives of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.
Hamas claimed to have ambushed Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east of the city, a sign the IDF had penetrated several kilometers from the east to the outskirts of the built-up area of the city.
Israel ordered civilians out of the eastern outskirts of Rafah earlier this week. The military has estimated that around 150,000 Palestinians in the east Rafah area have evacuated already.
Around a million more Palestinians, who fled other parts of the enclave during the war, remain in the city itself, and they have not been called to evacuate yet.
